Azam Khan skips Agra meet, SP says his absence does not matter

Khan had expressed his concern over the meeting of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with VHP leader Ashok Singhal

Samajwadi Party's Muslim face Mohammad Azam Khan was today conspicuous by his absence at its National Executive meet here but SP tried to give a "loud and clear" message that it was not going to give weightage to the senior leader.

"106 members hain, 26 nahi aaye to kya fark padta hai (There are 106 national executive members, 26 were absent from the meet...It doesn't matter)," SP National General Secretary Ramgopal Yadav told reporters while replying a question.

As per the official website of SP, there are 61 members in the National Executive including nine special invitees.

Khan, who is considered as the Muslim face of SP, had expressed his concern over the meeting of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with VHP leader Ashok Singhal and was reportedly not happy with the handling of the Muzaffarnagar violence.

The tone and tenor of Yadav suggested that the party did not want to give much importance and weightage to Khan.

Attacking Congress, the party alleged that it could do anything to weaken SP to strengthen its base in Uttar Pradesh.

"Congress knows that without harming SP, it could not do anything in the state...It can do anything to harm SP," Yadav said after the first round of National Executive in which political and economic resolutions were put up for discussion.

Asked if SP will support Congress again for formation of the government at the Centre, Yadav said that it was a hypothetical question and he would not like to comment on it.

On the discussion on formation of a third front, he said anything in this regard will be decided only after the Lok Sabha elections and at present, the party was focusing on fielding its candidates and contesting the polls on its own.